County Threatens To Seek New Firm For Garbage Plant

County negotiators say they are prepared to open talks with another company unless the firm selected to build a garbage incinerator in south Broward agrees to their demands by next Thursday.

Officials from both the county and Signal Environmental Systems Inc. have been meeting in an attempt to reach an agreement acceptable to both sides.

``They`re hard negotiators,`` John Canada, the county`s budget director, said after a meeting with Signal representatives Thursday. ``They want to hang out to the end. We`re at the end as far as we`re concerned.``

The pace of the negotiations also has been too slow for some county commissioners. On April 1, Commissioner Scott Cowan suggested that negotiators begin meeting with the second-ranked firm, American REF-FUEL, if they fail to make progress with Signal.

Signal`s negotiator, Jack Ristau, said he also hoped to close the deal on Thursday.

``We`re going to take it as a very serious day to hit,`` Ristau said. ``We`re not about to turn and walk away at this point with all we`ve got at stake.

``We just hope there is some equal consideration on their side that this is not a perfect world and that both sides come with a spirit of compromise,`` he said.

Signal, based in Hampton, N.H., was selected by the County Commission last summer to build the incinerator. Since then, most of the details of the agreement have been worked out.

But Tom Henderson, the county official overseeing the project, said talks have stalled over adjustments to the tipping fee, the amount the county would pay Signal for each ton of garbage brought in, and several other items.

The incinerator, expected to cost $187 million, would be on a 248-acre tract near State Roads 7 and 84.

Phyllis Korab, Henderson`s assistant, said that construction is supposed to begin on the incinerator in December or January. If the county decides to opt for the second-ranked firm, she said it would be harder to meet the deadline.

``We`re hoping that it won`t set us back,`` she said.

County officials won a big victory earlier this week when a state hearing officer ruled that they would not have to add $170 million worth of pollution controls to the incinerator.